Into the Big Apple and Beyond

Friday, Sept 14^th--Into the Big Apple and Beyond…

Today we drove into New York City and we are glad that we don’t have to do that again on this trip! The drivers in this metropolis are nuts when they dart in and out of the traffic and no one follows the speed limits. Many of the drivers must think that their car horns will help them get through the traffic…the more they honk, the faster the people in cars and crosswalks will move J

We drove into the city so that Donna could visit her cousin, Diana, whom she has not seen in 7 years. Diana lives in Queens so it meant driving into the city to pick her up for lunch at a kosher deli. Thank goodness we brought Susie, our trusty GPS along with us. She was able to get us down the turnpikes and parkways and right into traffic in the city with very few mistakes on her part. Yeh, Susie you are super!

Donna's cousin Diana (left) and Donna at kosher deli in Queens

 We had a wonderful visit with cousin Diana as she had a whole folder of family records that she found in her mother’s things after she passed away a few years ago. These included the grandparent’s marriage license, immigration papers and other records and many very old family pictures. Some are not identifiable by us but we hope to find who they might be. The documents might help Donna uncover some of the mysteries of the ancestors that have thus far been unknown.

typical Queens neighorhood

We had to finally stop and buy gas but the prices in New York were in the mid $4.00 range so we didn’t fill the tank. We decided to wait until the next state as we had heard that New Jersey is much cheaper and more similar to what we pay in the northwest. We also experienced just how expensive the tolls are on the bridges and turnpikes in this area as it cost $13 for one way on the bridge and $10 for about 1mile of the NJ turnpike. That makes our local Narrow’s Bridge toll seem a lot more reasonable. J

Crossing the $13 Varrazano Narrows Bridge at 10 mph

Tomorrow we are going to spend our last day in the NE researching John’s great-great-great grandparents who were born in the late 1700’s and are buried in western New Jersey. They are the patriarchs of the family on his mother’s side. We know where they lived and have also found the cemetery that they are buried in so it will be fun to see what additional information we can gather when we drive out there. We both enjoy learning about the genealogy of our families. It is like a detailed puzzle that we are solving.

We also plan on finding a nice place to celebrate our 44^th anniversary tomorrow here in New Jersey. It is hard to believe that we have been married for that many years but we both love each other and our lives together.

Sunday we board the cruise ship from Cape Liberty, NJ for another adventure with a cruise job of lecturing to Bermuda. We will be presenting programs for the guests and also enjoying the beautiful cities and beaches of this lovely island. It will be a weeks’ cruise and a wonderful way to complete this amazing adventure.